Aixtron recently announced that the investigation period for the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) to review the tender offer by Grand Chip Investment GmbH (GCI) from a U.S. national security perspective lapsed on November 17, 2016 at midnight EST (November 18, 2016, 6.00 am CET).
The announcement went on to state that CFIUS did not issue a close-out letter, but rather informed GCI and Aixtron that, from CFIUS' perspective, there are unresolved U.S. national security concerns regarding the proposed transaction.
Further, CFIUS informed the parties that it plans to recommend to the U.S. President that the transaction be prohibited based on CFIUS' conclusion that there would be no reasonable way to mitigate the U.S. national security risks perceived by CFIUS on the basis of the mitigation proposals submitted by the parties to date. As a consequence thereof, CFIUS recommended the parties request withdrawal of their notice and abandon the entire transaction.
Both, GCI and Aixtron have decided not to follow such recommendation as a result of which the matter has been referred to the U.S. President for decision in line with CFIUS statutes. Under the CFIUS statute, the U.S. President must render his decision to block or allow the proposed transaction within 15 calendar days.
GCI and Aixtron plan to continue to actively engage in further discussions to explore means of mitigation that may be amenable to CFIUS or the U.S. President to resolve outstanding U.S. national security concerns or to take other alternative measures that could allow the parties to proceed with the transaction.
There are no assurances that CFIUS or the U.S. President will entertain further dialogue with the parties or that the parties will be able to identify and agree to any mitigation or to take alternative measures that will allow the parties to proceed with the Transaction.
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